This email is for all students, staff, and faculty.

Dear Smith community members,

I hope you’ve been enjoying your summer. The Information Technology Services (ITS) team is looking forward to seeing everyone on campus this fall—we love the energy the start of the academic year brings.

As our team gears up for the start of the semester, I want to share some information with you related to digital security. We are taking two steps that are required by the college’s cybersecurity insurer and are intended to help all of us use our computing resources safely and securely. Both of these steps call for action from you. If you have further questions after reading, please contact ithelp@smith.edu for assistance. 

Step one: Complete two tasks in Workday by September 23, 2023

In the next two days, all community members will receive notifications via Workday regarding two tasks: a cybersecurity training course and a review/acknowledgement of Smith’s Computer and Electronic Resources Acceptable Use Policy. These tasks will be completed in a new Workday app called Learning. You’ll find help articles, with instructions on how to complete these tasks, here in Workday. We all must complete these two tasks annually, and we will receive regular reminder notices until the tasks are completed. Watch for information in eDigest about drop-in help sessions for those who need assistance with completing the tasks.The deadline for completion is September 23, 2023. 

Step two: Leave your Smith computer plugged in and turned on every Wednesday night and check your software operating system version by early September (preparations for automated patching) 

Beginning the week of fall break (week of October 9, 2023), ITS will automatically push software updates, called patches, to nearly all Smith-issued computers on a weekly basis. 

The software affected by these updates includes your operating system as well as standard non-academic software such as Zoom and Microsoft Office. The full list will be provided in late September along with further help materials and an FAQ.

The weekly update program affects all employee machines (including FCAP), Smith-managed emeriti machines, and loaner equipment. The only exceptions at this time are research computers supported by the CATS group in the Science Center. These exceptions will roll into this program later this academic year, with the research computer plans to be determined in coordination with Science Center partners. (Note that by long-standing practice, we do not update academic software while courses are in session, unless there are critical security updates.) 

The software patches will be pushed out to computers between 1:00 am and 5:00 am (US Eastern time) every Thursday. This means you need to leave your computer on and plugged in every Wednesday afternoon or evening so the updates can be completed overnight. We want you to start this practice now so it will be routine by the time the weekly software patches begin in mid-October. It does not matter if the computer is on campus or offsite, but it does need to be plugged in and connected to a network. 

Additional request: please check your software operating system

If you have not been running regular software updates for your operating system on your Smith computer, it may be out of date. Please check it promptly and run any outstanding updates. (If you do not know how to do this, your system is probably out of date, so please write ithelp@smith.edu for assistance.) 

If your operating system is older (has a smaller number) than OS 11 (Mac) or Windows 10, you need to upgrade it before the end of September. You may run the upgrade yourself, or you can write ithelp@smith.edu for instructions on how to check this or to make an appointment for assistance. The length of time needed to run the update will depend on how out of date your current operating system is. 

More information coming in late September 

We will be sending more information out about the automated software patching in late September. This will include an FAQ and help materials. Thank you for your attention to these important matters and for your critical role in keeping Smith’s digital experience safe and secure. 

Sincerely,

Samantha

Vice President for IT & Chief Information Officer

This email is primarily for students but is also shared with faculty and staff email lists as a courtesy

Dear students, 

Here are a few friendly reminders and updates about IT help, printing, and loaner equipment. 

IT Help

If you need assistance with an IT matter (equipment, wi-fi, software, OneCards, printing, accounts, etc.), please write ithelp@smith.edu, or fill out a help form by selecting Request Help on the menu for the digital support site. 

Printing

Information about printing and scanning is also available on the digital support site. This year we have increased the annual printing stipend for students to $35, which is a 700% increase from the prior $5. We chose this amount to cover 99% of the amount students printed last academic year. We’d like to acknowledge the advocacy and partnership of the 2021-2022 SGA Advocacy for Equity Council in increasing student access to printing at no additional cost. 

Loaner equipment

The Central Service Point on the ground floor of Neilson Library has laptops and media equipment for short-term loans to individuals, available on a first-come, first-served basis. (If your instructor has made arrangements with us for equipment for course project use, you will pick it up here as well.) Information about Central Service Point hours is available on the Neilson Library webpage about spaces and technology.

Wishing you the very best for the rest of the semester. Please get in touch if we can help!

Sincerely,

Samantha Earp

Vice President for IT & Chief Information Officer

sent on behalf of the digital support team

Phishing–the practice of tricking people into revealing personal or confidential information which can then be used illicitly–is an increasing risk for all of the Smith community. As these phishing practices become more sophisticated, there are simple steps you can take to keep yourselves and others safe. 

To learn more about how to protect yourself against phishing, all Smith employees (excluding students) are required to complete the following three short training steps:  

1. Watch this short (4 minute) video (https://youtu.be/sEMrBKmUTPE)

2. Take this short quiz to check your ability to detect possible phishing (https://phishingquiz.withgoogle.com/) 

3. Complete a Workday task to let us know you have watched the video and taken the quiz. (Look for an email today to let you know about this inbox task.) 

We ask that you complete these items no later than August 31, 2022. Thank you for your active involvement in Smith College’s commitment to digital safety for all members of our community. Please write ithelp@smith.edu if you have any questions. 

Samantha Earp

Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer

Austin Hatch

Senior Director, IT Risk Management

Dear Smith students, staff and faculty: 

Greetings to all of you as you get ready for the spring term. If you need help on technology matters, you can get in touch with us by selecting Request Help on the digital support site, calling 413-585-4487, or writing ithelp@smith.edu. We are not offering drop-in service in Stoddard Hall at this time. In the event that your help request requires in-person support, a team member will schedule you for an appointment. (This may change later in the term as our COVID operating modes change.) 

Instructors, here are a couple of timely resources for getting ready for the first week of remote classes: 

• How to set up a course Zoom link (scheduling and managing recurring meetings)

• How to post a course Zoom link in Moodle

Good luck, be well, and get in touch if we can help. 

Best,

Samantha Earp

Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer

(on behalf of the digital support team)

Link to survey (Smith login required) - open through November 19, 2021

We’d like to know what has worked well for you, what 1-2 things would make your technology experience better, plus anything else you’d like to share. We’ll use your input to plan for the spring and understand what other adjustments would be helpful. Please note that this is not a help line; for specific problems, please select Request Help in the site menu.

Dear faculty and staff:

Greetings from everyone in the digital support team. We have some things we’d like you to be aware of. 

Summary (see below for details)

• Action requested: update your Zoom software weekly, apply for support for January/Spring courses, send us feedback on your fall technology experience, delete old Zoom meeting recordings

• FYI: classroom improvements, continued supply chain issues, January & spring courses now available in Moodle for instructors

• Help is always available by submitting a request via the digital support site or emailing ithelp@smith.edu. 

Action Requested (details) 

• Please update your Zoom software weekly. (See the instructions.) Zoom releases regular updates, and occasionally older versions of the software don’t work smoothly or have bugs that are addressed in newer versions. Most of the time, the minor hiccups we see in virtual meetings are attributed by Zoom to using older versions of the software. You will need to run this update manually on each device on which you have Zoom installed. Currently there is no way to run automatic updates, but we will let you know if this changes. 

• Applications are open for support for January term and Spring 2022 classes. Apply for digital pedagogy consultation for courses and course projects; apply for the faculty iPad loaner program; apply for course equipment and software requests; and request any special classroom technology. The deadline for priority consideration is December 6, 2021, and we will reply by December 21, 2021 to applications that come in on time. We will accept late applications until January 14, 2022, with the expectation that support may be limited at that late stage.  

• Have feedback on your fall technology experience? (Complete our survey! Smith login required.) We’d like to know what has worked well for you, what 1-2 things would make your technology experience better, plus anything else you’d like to share. We’ll use your input to plan for the spring and understand what other adjustments would be helpful. Please note that this is not a help line; for specific problems, please submit a help request as outlined above. 

• Please delete old Zoom meeting recordings. Please delete old recordings of Zoom meetings. This helps us keep costs down for storage. We have instructions on how to do this on the digital support site, or you can send in a help request (see above) if you’d like assistance with this.  

FYIs (details) 

• Supply chain issues are still a thing. This is all over the media, and unfortunately it’s very much a fact of life here at Smith as well. This affects everything from classroom projector bulbs to orders of new computers and more. In cases where orders are delayed (multiple months in some cases), we will do our best to work with you on short-term alternatives while we are waiting for items to be delivered. This is frustrating for everyone, and we ask for your patience and understanding. 

• January 2022 and Spring 2022 courses are now set up in Moodle. This change, which was put in place on October 26, means that instructors are able to access their January or Spring courses in Moodle. Per standard practice, initial access is limited to instructors. We enroll students in their Moodle course two weeks before the start of the term.  

• We’ve improved the sound setup in a few classrooms. In certain classrooms, the microphone used for the in-room voicelift system now also supports Zoom use. Rooms currently set-up with this capability are Bass102, Burton 301, McConnell 404, Seelye 101, 110, 301 and Stoddard G2. Send suggestions for additional classrooms where this would be beneficial by writing ithelp@smith.edu.

Need help? Have a question this email didn’t answer? We’re here and ready to assist. Submit a help request via the digital support site or write ithelp@smith.edu. 

Best,

Samantha

Dear staff and faculty:

Here are some updates to address some of the questions we’re getting as the semester approaches.  

New updates: 

• Course rosters are now accessed via Workday. Instructions are available here (Smith login required).  

• Need help with other Workday back to school matters? See our faculty and administrative help materials for Workday. We have multiple training and drop-in help options available as well for faculty, liberal arts advisers, academic admins, and student employment managers. (Smith login required for these links.)

• Mics for voice amplification in classrooms are available for loan to the instructors of record for fall courses. Instructors who wish to request a mic for use in Smith classrooms this fall should Request Help via the Digital Support site.
  
  In the help form, indicate that you are faculty/instructor, and in the “I need help with” item, choose “A mic for voice amplification in classrooms” from the list. In the “please provide additional information” box, please list all of the spaces in which you will be teaching. (This detail matters in some cases for the kind of microphone you will receive.)
  
  Requests will be processed as quickly as possible. Our response will include pickup information. At the time of your pickup, you will receive instructions on how to use the mic in Smith classrooms. (For this reason, you should plan to pick your mic up yourself rather than asking a colleague to pick the mic up for you.)

Relevant updates from prior communications: 

• Workshops continue on a range of technology and digital pedagogy topics. See the “Fall 2021 workshops” section on this page for info and signups.  

• We’re also offering late August orientations for AV/tech in three different kinds of classrooms. See the “Classroom Orientations (Drop-in)” section on this page for info and signups. Those who complete the general classroom orientation and still encounter difficulties can arrange for follow up training in their assigned classroom.
  
  Our return to campus guidelines may be useful for those who want to prepare their workstation or laptop before coming back to campus. We also have guidance on options for hybrid meetings. 

Need help? Have a question this email didn’t answer? We’re here and ready to assist. Submit a help request via the digital support site or write ithelp@smith.edu. 

Best wishes to you all, on behalf of the digital support team. We look forward to seeing you on campus or online sometime soon!

Best,

Samantha Earp

Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Office

Dear instructors and staff,

With the fall term approaching, we will have somewhat more frequent digital support updates for a while. Here are things to be aware of right now. We’ll have another update in mid-August. 

• Instructors must submit applications by August 1 for priority consideration for these programs: use of Adobe software in fall courses; digital pedagogy consultation for courses; faculty iPad loaner program, tablet loaner program for courses. See the “August 1 program deadlines” section of this page for info and application forms. Responses will be sent by August 11, 2021. 

• We’re offering workshops for instructors in August, on a range of technology and digital pedagogy topics. See the “Fall 2021 workshops” section on this page for info and signups.  

• We’re also offering late August orientations for AV/tech in three different kinds of classrooms. See the “Classroom Orientations (Drop-in)” section on this page for info and signups. 

• We’ll be posting additional help materials on the digital support site soon, including a return to campus tech readiness checklist and information about supporting meetings where some attendees are remote and some attendees are in the same campus space. These materials will be linked off the home page and should be available by August 6. 

• Need help? Have a question this email didn’t answer? We’re here and ready to assist. Submit a help request via the digital support site or write ithelp@smith.edu. 

Best wishes to you all, on behalf of the digital support team. We look forward to seeing you on campus or online sometime soon!

Best,

Samantha

Dear instructors of Fall 2021 courses,

I write on behalf of the digital support team with information about support for fall courses. Here’s the summary of what we’d like you to know: 

1. Applications are required for a number of support programs. Deadlines are August 1 for priority consideration, and September 15 for “best effort” support. If you are a fall course instructor who wants to use Adobe software for course projects, get loaner tablets for students working on major course projects, have access to ongoing digital pedagogy consultation, or get a loaner iPad, these deadlines apply to you. 

2. Some additional contextual information: Fall courses will be available in Moodle as of June 15; loaner devices will be available for students with demonstrated financial need; and the ability to record live class sessions is limited to certain classrooms (See list here). 

Full details follow below. For any questions about these or other matters, please submit a Digital Support help request. We will send monthly reminders of these support options in June and July, along with any other relevant updates. We will share more information in late July or early August about workshops and classroom consultations. 

1. Applications are required for the following support programs. 

The deadline for priority applications is August 1. The application and review process is necessary due to a combination of budget considerations and time needed to prepare effectively. Applications will be reviewed after the August 1 deadline, with the expectation that all reasonable requests received by that time will be accommodated as fully as possible. Support is not confirmed until you receive an official notification of approval. Notifications will be provided no later than August 11, 2021. 

• Use of Adobe software in fall course projects and assignments. (Apply here.) This is for instructors who want students to have access to Adobe software on their personally-owned computers for use in ongoing course assignments or major projects. (This is not for general purpose use.) No application is needed for Adobe software access on Smith-owned computers, whether in labs or on Smith loaner laptops. 

• Tablet loaners for fall course projects. (Apply here.) This is for instructors who want a subset or all of their students in a particular course to have a tablet available to them for a specific course project or set of assignments requiring extensive handwritten work. (This is not for general purpose use.) You still need to submit an application even if you previously had tablet loaners for your course in an earlier semester. 

• Digital pedagogy consultation on major course projects & tools adoption. (Apply here.) This is for instructors who would like digital pedagogy consultation on major (ongoing) course projects and/or effective adoption and improvement of digital tools throughout a course. Those accepted into this program will receive ongoing consultation and support from the Learning, Research, and Technology (LRT) team or other IT partners as determined by LRT staff. (No application is required for simple, short questions about tools and options. Those queries can be sent in at any time via the Digital Support site help request. Likewise, help for immediate technical issues is always available, again through the Digital Support site.) 

• Faculty iPad loaner program. (Apply here.) This is for instructors of record in Fall 2021 courses who would like an iPad for regular instructional use. Those approved who will be teaching again in the Spring 2022 term can request renewal but should expect to return the iPad in late May 2022. Note that we can not confirm a specific date of delivery due to continued fluctuations in equipment availability. (Obviously, our hope would be to have these ready as soon as possible.) 

There will be a second, “best effort” application deadline of September 15 for these programs. “Best effort” means that we will do our best to accommodate reasonable requests as long as we have equipment, staffing capacity and the ability to provide support without jeopardizing our prior commitments. Most of the time this will mean that we will be able to help in some way, but in some cases support may not be possible. This second round of applications will be reviewed beginning September 15, and support is not confirmed until you have received an official notification indicating that your application has been accepted. These notifications will be processed as quickly as possible, which may be anywhere from 5-10 days after the application deadline.  

2. Some additional contextual information 

• Fall courses will be available in Moodle on June 15. Per usual practice, the courses will be updated in Moodle throughout the summer as changes are made to the fall course list. 

• Students with demonstrated financial need will have the option of borrowing a loaner computing device in the fall. This continues the program that was piloted during pandemic mode. Students will receive information about this option directly in the coming weeks, and the offices involved in advising will be kept informed. 

• The ability to record live class sessions is limited to certain classrooms. This is relevant for those of you who want to continue the practice of video recording your class presentation and voice narration for later review by enrolled students. (This capability is often referred to as “lecture capture and is distinct from basic computer screen recording with audio narration, which can take place in any classroom.) The list of classrooms with built in video recording capacity (camera & mics) is available here in the lecture capture section.

On behalf of the digital support team –an amazing group of colleagues spanning ITS, CATS, the library, and other partner offices– I wish all of you a peaceful and restorative summer. We look forward to working with you in the fall. 

Warmly,

Samantha

---------------

Samantha Earp

Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer

Dear faculty, staff, and students, 

The digital support team has a few friendly reminders for you. 

1. Upgrade your Zoom app

If you haven’t already upgraded your computer/smartphone Zoom apps in the last 7-10 days, please do so soon. This will keep you current with the functionality and will help ensure that everyone in the same class or group has a similar Zoom experience. To update your smartphone app, go through your Android or Apple app store. For help with upgrading your desktop Zoom app, please consult our instructions. 

2. How to get technology help

If you need help with any technology related to your learning or work, please go to the Request Help menu item on the Digital Support site and submit a help ticket. A member of our team will follow up with you soon. 

3. Please submit virtual event support requests at least two weeks in advance

This is a friendly reminder for departments and programs to submit help requests for virtual events at least two weeks in advance, with additional lead time preferable where possible. We need this early notice to figure out if and how we might help, which often involves some back and forth.  

Best wishes from all of us in the digital support team, with thanks to the ITS, CATS, Library and partner staff from around the college!

Samantha Earp

Vice President for Information Technology / Chief Information Officer

I’m writing with a few brief support reminders ahead of the first day of classes on Monday. 

If you need help or have a question about this email: please go to the Digital Support site at  https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital/home, select Request Help from the top menu, and tell us what you need. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can, and we will have options for same-day assistance (M-F) with urgent course issues. 

Printing and scanning locations on campus have been confirmed; see the list of locations in the Student section of the Digital Support site. Printing access will be possible during blue, green, and yellow operating modes. Scanning is not available during blue mode.  

Additional notes for spring 2021 instructors: 

• All of the special program requests that came in by the January 15th deadline have been accepted and responded to. This includes requests for course assistants, special software and tablets, as well as consultations on classroom spaces. If you submitted your request by the deadline and have not heard back from us, please submit a help request at the link above, and we’ll follow up. In addition, most of the late requests that came in have been addressed or are in progress. You can expect to hear from us soon if you haven’t already. 

• As previously announced, Zoom recordings made on or after February 12, 2021 are stored in Panopto. At this time, this applies only to recordings made by Spring 2021 instructors and does not affect students, staff, or faculty who are not the instructor of record for a spring 2021 course. Help materials for Panopto are available on the Digital Support site in the Supported Tools section. Spring instructors who need further assistance may sign up for the February 15 Panopto Basics workshop or request help through the Digital Support site. 

From all of us in the digital support team, including staff from ITS, the library, CATs, and more, we send you best wishes for the first week of spring classes!

Best,

Samantha Earp

Dear Students,

With the end of the term approaching, your loan of Adobe software will soon conclude. You will have access to the software until 12/18/20.

After that, your loan will no longer be active. If you are in an interterm course that requires active, ongoing use of this software let us know, by submitting this form and we can connect with your faculty member or supervisor (for work-study students) to confirm this use and make appropriate arrangements. Likewise, if you are in a spring course that is approved for Adobe support, you will receive further information prior to the start of classes on February 15th.

Thank you, 

Digital Support Team

Dear interterm instructors,

The digital support team has resources to help as you plan your interterm course. Take a look below, and let us know (via the help link on the digital support site) if you have questions. Please note in particular the December 10, 2020 deadline for requesting a course assistant. 

• Dedicated course assistant to help with course sessions throughout the term (see program description; apply to hire a specific student - deadline December 10, 2020) 

• Technical assistant to help for a small number of course sessions (see program description; request help for specific dates) 

• Workshops on a variety of technology and pedagogical topics

If you have further questions (about technology to support your course goals, using a Smith classroom to teach your remote interterm course, requesting a Slack course space, or any other technical or support needs), please select the help link on the menu of the digital support site, complete a help request, and one of our team will get back to you. Note that requests submitted during the Thanksgiving holiday will be responded to next week. Finally, look for a similar email the week of December 7 with information about support for spring 2021 courses. 

With best wishes from everyone in the digital support team,

Samantha Earp

TeamDynamix will be down for vendor-enforced maintenance on October 10th, 2020 from 12:00AM to 4:00AM. If you need to create a help ticket during this time period, please email ithelp@smith.edu instead of using the "request help" buttons throughout the Digital Support Site.

Smith Moodle had an unexpected outage early this morning. The outage began around 3:16 am and continued until around 7:16 a.m. During this time, those attempting to use Moodle may not have been able to log in, or those who were already in Moodle may have been kicked out. 

This was part of a larger outage that also affected other schools. We are working with our service provider to understand what happened (what we call “root cause”) and to see how to prevent this from happening again. 

If you experience any issues with Moodle, please write ithelp@smith.edu or send in a help request on the digital support site at https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital/.

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. We have a few timely updates as we approach the first day of classes tomorrow: 

1. Login info for Five Colleges students 

2. Same-day consultations

3. Live transcripts in Zoom

4. Check these 4 things

   • • Unhiding Moodle

     • Post your Zoom link in your course home base

     • Post your Slack link in your course home base

     • Student page to link from the syllabus

Details are in the corresponding numbered sections below. 

As always, please submit help questions via the Help link on the digital support site: https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital (if you visit the old site, you will be redirected to the new one). Requests that go to individual staff members may take longer to get an initial response and may introduce delays in getting you connected to a person who can help with your specific question. 

1. Five Colleges login info

We’ve created a new help page that explains how the logins work for several of our most frequently used class tools work for Five Colleges students. Read more at https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital/students/five-college-students. 

2. Same day consultations (for emergency course situations) 

Through the second week of classes, we are holding a handful of 20-30 minute consultation slots each afternoon from 3-5 p.m., for urgent situations instructors want to address around remote courses. These are for questions that are truly urgent and that can’t be easily addressed through a simple information exchange. If you find yourself in this situation, put in a help request on the digital support site and we’ll try to slot you in for same day assistance. We’ll use our best judgment on assessing the urgency as we schedule appointments. 

3. Live transcripts in Zoom

We encourage all Zoom meeting hosts to turn on the live transcript feature at the beginning of the live Zoom session, whether the session is a course or a meeting. This allows each participant to turn on live captions if they wish. 

4. Four things to check before your first day of class

Here’s a brief checklist for those of you who start teaching classes this week: 

• If you’re using Moodle, make sure you unhide your Moodle course so your students can see it when they log in. 

• Make sure you post your Zoom course link(s) in your course home base. (PDF instructions, also linked off the Zoom tools page.)  

• Make sure you post your Slack workspace link (if you have one) in your course home base. For instructions on how to find the URL for your Slack workspace, see Locate Your Slack URL. For instructions on how to post the URL in Moodle, look here. 

• Provide a link in your course home base to the student technology support page on the digital support site (https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital/students/technology-support-for-students).

Thanks for reading this far, and happy first week of classes to all! Get in touch if we can help.

Best,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. We have a few timely updates as we approach the first day of the fall term: 

1. New digital support site 

2. Student technology support

3. August 28th deadline to apply for fall faculty iPad program

4. Weekend pedagogical consultations for instructors

5. Assistants for courses

6. Tools use in China

Details are in the corresponding numbered sections below. 

As always, please submit help questions via the Help link on the digital support site: https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital (if you visit the old site, you will be redirected to the new one). Requests that go to individual staff members may take longer to get an initial response and may introduce delays in getting you connected to a person who can help with your specific question. 

1. New digital support site

Earlier today, we launched a new digital support site at https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/digital. It has been redesigned for easier use on mobile devices as well as computer screens, and we have updated the content structure. The help form has also been streamlined to make it easier to submit your request quickly. If you click on any saved links to the old site, you will be redirected to the home page of the new site automatically. 

2. Student technology support

The new digital support site includes three pages relevant for instructors or those who support students: 

• Technology support for students: This is a general information page that you can link to from your syllabus. It connects to the pages in the bullets below as well as additional helpful information for students. 

• Technology loaner program: The college is funding loaner computing devices and hotspots as well as (in limited cases) connectivity stipends for eligible students with demonstrated financial need. Read this page for full details. 

• Tools for students: Includes information about general tools uses in courses as well as links to software available for download or remote access. 

3. August 28 deadline to apply for Fall 2020 faculty iPad purchase & loaner program

We will accept applications for the Fall 2020 Faculty iPad Purchase and loaner program through August 28 at 5 p.m. Applications will be processed on a time-permitting basis. We will make decisions about potential spring programs in the December-January timeframe. (This is a repeat of an announcement from the August 19, 2020 digital support update.) 

4. Weekend consultations available August 29-30 

Instructors: book a 30-minute pedagogical consultation with a member of our team this weekend if you’d like to discuss your teaching needs and the tools/technologies you're evaluating for Fall 2020 courses. Signups available here; select Consultation from the top menu and then select the right arrow beside the description to view available times. 

5. Assistants for courses 

The information circulated on August 19 about our two student assistant programs is now available on the new digital support site. Note that September 11, 2020 is the final day to submit a request to hire a specific student as a fall course assistant.  

For those of you who have already submitted requests for a short-term student tech assistant or a semester course assistant, we are processing those now. You will hear something from us soon if you haven’t already. 

6. Tools use in China

We’ve summarized the advice we’ve been sharing in various workshop and consultation settings in a single document (Smith login required). This also includes some new information that we are tracking. We will also get the link added to the new digital support site in the next few days.   

Thanks for reading this far, and on behalf of the very hardworking cross-departmental digital support team (with colleagues from ITS, CATS, the Libraries, and other units), thank you for your partnership. Wishing you all productive days and moments of respite in these busy times!

Best,

Samantha

Moodle: Our Moodle cloud hosting provider has reported a slowdown in access to Moodle that affects many of their partner institutions. This is not the normal user experience, and we will be working with them to address this as quickly as possible. 

Zoom: The Zoom issue that was affecting many East coast and Europe-based users has now been resolved. You should be able to access Zoom meetings via the web browser, links in your calendar, the app on your computer, and the smartphone app. 

Thank you,

The Digital Support team

Dear campus community,

Zoom is reporting issues this morning in accessing Zoom meetings via a web browser. While Zoom works to resolve this issue, you can join a Zoom meeting via the Zoom app. 

1) Launch the Zoom app directly

2) Click Join

3) Put in the meeting ID

You will probably not be able to join meetings by clicking the link directly in a calendar entry. You can also dial in by phone.

We will continue to monitor the issue and post updates on the ITS site as they become available.

Thanks,

The Digital Support team

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. We have five updates this week, focused on preparations for fall courses.

1. Moodle unavailable Friday (8/21) 5 p.m. to Monday (8/24) 8 a.m.

2. Assistants for courses

3. Workshops

4. Last week to apply for fall faculty iPad program

5. “Back to school” support, including emergency consultations

Details are in the corresponding numbered sections below.

As always, please submit help questions via the Request Help link on the digital support site: https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support (Smith login required). Requests that go to individual staff members may take longer to get an initial response and may introduce delays in getting you connected to a person who can help with your specific question.

1. Moodle is unavailable this Friday (8/21) 5 p.m to Monday (8/24) 8 a.m.

Moodle will be completely unavailable during this time period so we can complete the final transition to our new, upgraded Moodle service. This specific timing was chosen to be as soon as possible after SSW end of summer term activities are completed but still as early as possible before the beginning of the fall term. After this change has been completed, all Moodle courses can be accessed by logging into https://moodle.smith.edu. Please send any questions by selecting Request Help on the digital support site.

2. Assistants for courses

We have two programs available that provide student assistants for fall courses. Student technology assistant (usually short-term): This program provides a student worker to assist with basic uses of technology in your remote course, focusing primarily on Zoom and polling. ITS trains, supervises, and pays these students. The student technology assistant can provide some basic support for a few sessions, for those faculty who would like some extra help at the beginning of the term or who may have a specific activity later in the term that would benefit from assistance. In limited cases, we may be able to provide a student technology assistant for a longer period of time in the course. To request a student technology assistant, please complete the application form (Smith login required) at least two business days ahead of the class session in which you want assistance.

Student course assistant (semester assignment): This program allows faculty to have a student with disciplinary knowledge assigned to provide technical assistance in assigned courses for the full term. ITS trains and pays the students. The student will complete all work remotely. The faculty member teaching the course (with assistance from their department, in some cases) recruits the student, who must be based in the U.S. The faculty member supervises the student and is responsible for prompt approval of the student’s weekly timesheets. The student course assistant attends regular class sessions, provides basic assistance with standard course tools, moderates class communication channels, assists with polling, and provides other general technical and communication support. The student is required to attend regular ITS meetings throughout the semester to remain in good standing. Faculty may submit hiring requests here (Smith login required). We will accept student course assistant requests through September 11, 2020.

3. Workshops

These workshops still have space available as of this writing. Signups available here. 

• Humanize Your Online Course with VoiceThread - Mon, 8/31 at 11am

• Making & Sharing Recordings - Thurs, 8/20 at 9:30am

• Orienting your students to learning online - Fri, 8/28 at 9:30am

• Poll Everywhere: Basics - Thurs, 8/20 at 11am, Wed, 8/26 at 11am

• Teaching Community of Practice: Conversation on Assessment - Wed, 8/26 at 2pm

• Teaching with Slack - Fri, 8/21 at 9:30am, Mon, 8/24 at 1pm, Wed, 8/26 at 1pm, Thurs, 8/27 at 1pm

• Teaching with Tablets & Digital Whiteboards - Fri, 8/21 at 3pm, Mon, 8/24 at 11am, Tues, 8/25 at 3pm

• Teaching with VoiceThread: Essentials - Fri, 8/21 at 11am, Tues, 8/25 at 1pm, Thurs, 8/27 at 3pm

• Zoom Take the Wheel! A hands-on Zoom host experience - Fri, 8/28 at 2:30pm

• Zoom Take the Wheel! Breakout Rooms - Tues, 8/25 at 10:30am

• Zoom Take the Wheel! Screen Sharing and Managing Windows - Thurs, 8/20 at 3pm, Mon, 8/24 at 3pm

• Zoom Take the Wheel! Viewing and Engaging Your Students - Thurs, 8/27 at 9:30am

4. Final week to apply for Fall 2020 Faculty iPad Purchase & Loaner Program

We will accept applications for the Fall 2020 Faculty iPad Purchase and loaner program through August 28 at 5 p.m. Applications will be processed on a time permitting basis. We will make decisions about potential spring programs in the December-January timeframe.

5. Back to school support

The week of August 24th, the digital support team shifts into our intensive “Back to school” phase, which goes through the third week of classes. Our primary focus will be on final preparations for course readiness and on responding to help requests as quickly as possible, in order of urgency. Some of the things to look for next week, as part of this final push to get ready for the semester:

• A technology help document instructors can link to from your syllabi, to explain technology support options to your students

• Updates on arrangements for specialized software 

• Phone support for the IT Help Desk (during regular business hours)

• Technology training sessions for TAs

• Information about just-in-time, emergency consultations (for those especially urgent questions or help requests)

• A redesigned digital support site

Thanks for reading this far. On behalf of the digital support team (with colleagues from ITS, CATS, the Libraries, and

more), I send you our best wishes for your final preparations for the fall term!

Best,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. We have six updates this week, all for faculty who are preparing fall courses.

1. Final summer Teaching Community of Practice Faculty Panel session is August 5th, focused on accessibility and equity (Caroline Melly, Laura Katz)

2. Perusall now available in Moodle

3. Slack available for course uses beginning August 10th

4. New workshops: multimodal classroom preview; “putting it all together” integrative workshop; two new Slack offerings

5.  iPad Pro Program update

6. Materials available from academic department chairs meeting on Fall 2020 Technology Support for courses

Details are in the corresponding numbered sections below.

As always, please submit help questions via the Request Help link on the digital support site: https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support (Smith login required). Requests that go to individual staff members may take longer to get an initial response and may introduce delays in getting you connected to a person who can help with your specific question.

1. Teaching Community of Practice Faculty Panel August 5th

The final summer Teaching Community of Practice Faculty Panel session is August 5th, focused on accessibility and equity, featuring faculty speakers Caroline Melly and Laura Katz. To sign up, select the Sign Up For A Workshop link in the faculty section of the digital support site and find the panel listed in the pedagogical workshop category. This workshop is co-sponsored by the Sherrerd Center and the Learning, Research, and Technology group.

2. Perusall now available in Moodle

Perusall allows you to add documents and readings for collaborative annotation and markup. Some publishers make their materials available for use via Perusall as well. This tool is now available to those of you teaching fall courses. To access Perusall, log in to Moodle and browse to one of your fall courses. Then you can add Perusall as an activity or resource as an external tool type. Note that Persusall is in the early adoption phase at Smith. This means that it has been licensed for use by anyone at the college, and we are in our first term using it and understanding how to best support and enable its use broadly. We’ll provide help materials and training sessions in the coming weeks, but those of you who want to check it out right now are free to do so. For a few more weeks, you can access the new Moodle via Smith.moonami.com. In late August, we will switch back to moodle.smith.edu. Our use of the new Moodle setup at this time is focused on formal courses being taught in the fall. If you do not see your course or are unable to log in: You may not see what you’re looking for just yet if you are new to Smith or if your course/teaching assignment isn’t fully updated in our systems. This is not unusual during the summer as we have changes in course and instructor lists. Please contact ithelp@smith.edu for assistance.

3. Slack available for course uses beginning August 10th

Slack is a collaboration and communications tool that is being officially supported at Smith for the first time as of this fall. It will be available for course uses beginning August 10th. We will provide help materials in the next few days, and our workshop program now includes sessions on “Teaching with Slack” and “Slack User Essentials,” which also begin the week of August 10th. Learn more by selecting the Sign Up For A Workshop link in the faculty section of the digital support site. We know that Slack will have many great uses on campus outside of formal courses, too. We will work on setup and support for those uses later in the fall, after we have done everything we need to do to get courses off to a good start.

4. New workshops

In addition to our existing program of workshops, we have three new offerings to highlight. To sign up, select the Sign Up for a Workshop link on the faculty section of the digital support site, and browse the workshop list to find the specific titles. We will continue to add additional workshops in the next two weeks as well. 

• Multimodal classroom preview (beginning week of August 3rd), for those who want to get a sense of what it will be like to run a class with in-person and remote participants simultaneously. These short sessions will take place in Seelye 101. You may register for in-person or remote attendance; you do not need to do both. (Those who attend in person must bring a laptop, wear a mask, and adhere to classroom physical distancing guidelines.) Priority for the August 3-7 sessions are for faculty who want to sign up for the multimodal “putting it all together” workshop the week of August 10th (see item below).

  • • Note that these are *not* sessions to learn how to use the Extron control panel. Sessions on how to use specific Smith classrooms will take place in late August after classroom assignments have been made by the registrar’s office.

• “Putting it all together” integrative workshops (week of August 10th; registration available August 4th). This three-part workshop provides an explicit scaffold and context for the range of pedagogical, planning, and practical (tools) needs in preparing fall courses. Within the larger course context, we focus on the kind of experience the faculty member wants the student to have in the course and the specific pedagogical goals to be addressed. Then we think about how to translate that larger pedagogical context into specific activities, with a particular focus on ensuring equity and accessibility in each activity. Finally, we focus on the tool(s) that can enable these goals and activities, and we plan for how to integrate those into the course in a seamless way. 

  • • There is a remote teaching version of this workshop August 10-12 and a multimodal teaching version of this workshop August 12-14. We meet for 75 minutes each of the three days. Those attending the multimodal version need to attend a multimodal classroom preview prior to August 12. All registrants will be asked to complete 30-45 minutes of advance work prior to the first workshop session.

• Slack workshops (beginning week of August 10th): As mentioned in item 2 above, we are offering two new workshops on “Slack User Essentials”, which includes an overview and hands-on practice of Slack basics; and “Teaching with Slack”, which focuses on how to use Slack as part of a course.

5. iPad Pro Program Update (for faculty teaching Fall 2020 courses)

In the last few days, we have begun responding to faculty requests to purchase or borrow an iPad Pro, as the case may be. If you haven’t heard about the status of your request, you will soon. We will let you know as soon as the equipment arrives and is ready for distribution. Keep in mind that delivery timelines have been affected by the pandemic, which is the reason for the delay. For more information, consult the program overview.

6. Materials from academic department chairs & directors meetings

Over the last couple of weeks, I have met with the academic department, program, and center directors to outline the digital support model for fall courses, answer questions, and identify items for ongoing follow up. The deck from the July 22nd meeting and a subsequent narrative version are available for viewing by anyone with a Smith login.

Thanks to those of you who have read this far, and please join me in recognizing the many staff from ITS, CATS, the Libraries, the Museum of Art, the Imaging Center, and other campus units who are key partners in our efforts to support a successful fall term. We’ll be back in touch soon with more updates.

Best,

Samantha

Dear Smith students who are taking courses in the fall 2020 term,

As announced earlier today, Smith College is moving to a fully remote model for the fall term. (You can read President Kathy McCartney’s letter here.)

As promised in the president’s letter, we are committed to ensuring the fullest possible access to computing devices and internet connectivity for all of you who are taking fall courses. To help us understand your specific technology needs, please complete this short technology needs assessment by Monday, August 10. (Your Smith login is required to access the survey.)

We will begin outreach August 14 about our plans for technology support for fall courses.

With very best wishes from Smith College,

Samantha Earp

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. We have five updates this week. The first four are primarily for faculty who are preparing for fall courses; the last one is for offices and administrative departments.

1.  Moodle has been upgraded! (initial details below; more coming next week)

2. Application process for iPad Pro purchase & loaner programs (overview)

3. Update on academic departmental consultation process

4. Reminder about the faculty panel series every Wednesday at 2 pm (register here)

5. Reminder of our July-August workshop & individual consultation program, with new sessions being added for weeks of July 20th & 27th and new campus partner sessions (workshop list here)

6. Consultation service available to offices that need help thinking through or improving remote workflows

Details are in the corresponding numbered sections below.

As always, please submit help questions via the Request Help link on the digital support site: https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support (Smith login required). Requests that go to individual staff members may take longer to get an initial response and may introduce delays in getting you connected to a person who can help with your specific question.

1. Moodle has been upgraded!

Thanks to the great work of our Moodle service team, we have a new, upgraded Moodle that we’ve just made available this week. This means we are now using an up to date version of Moodle, with a new look and feel, some new features, and we are better positioned to keep Moodle current as we move forward. Our team will be adding some additional functionality and making final adjustments through mid-August. Look for a separate campus email about Moodle sometime next week that will go into more depth. In the meantime, here are a few advance details:

How to log in: If you are preparing a course for the fall, for the next few weeks you can log in at smith.moonami.com using your Smith login. This will shift back to moodle.smith.edu later in August, after the SSW Summer 2 term concludes. (SSW Summer 2 faculty will continue to access their courses through moodle.smith.edu.)

How to learn more: We have weekly workshops available; look for the workshop entitled What’s New In Moodle. We’re also developing updated documentation that references the new Moodle version. To register for the workshop, go to the digital support site, select Sign Up For A Workshop, and look for the Moodle offerings. Also, here’s an early look at some of the new features, with more to come next week. 

Loading fall courses: Smith.moonami.com has the course list that was current as of June. We know this list will change as the registrar’s office makes adjustments based on recent updates from academic departments. Students will be loaded later in the summer.

If you do not see your course or are unable to log in: You may not see what you’re looking for just yet if you are new to Smith or if your course/teaching assignment wasn’t in the registrar’s system in June. This is not unusual during the summer as we have changes in course and instructor lists. Please contact ithelp@smith.edu for assistance.

2. iPad Pro purchase & loaner programs

This targeted program (full details here - Smith login required) is available to faculty who are the primary instructor of record for one or more Fall (September-December) 2020 undergraduate or graduate courses. The purpose of the program is to give faculty the option to work with handwritten content in their courses. The program provides access to one iPad Pro 11” 128 GB device, plus an Apple pencil and a protective case. This is a one-time program with no commitment to replace the device at the end of its life cycle. There are two options: a purchase program and a loaner program.

To sign up for these programs, visit the faculty section of the digital support site, select Request Help (Smith login required) > Submit Covid-19 Digital Support Request > indicate that you are a faculty member when prompted to identify your Smith affiliation, and then select the option for the purchase or loaner program. We will acknowledge your purchase requests within 2-3 business days. Loaner requests will be kept on file for when we are ready with the program.

As mentioned in last week’s email, we will have loaner programs for basic video equipment available in late July/early August. Look for more information on that program in upcoming digital support updates.

3. Academic department chairs consultation process begins week of July 20

As noted in last week’s message, we’ve had multiple requests for consultations with academic departments. The week of July 20th, we’re offering a webinar for all chairs, informed by questions chairs submitted to a recent Provost office survey. After that, we may set up additional consultations with smaller groups of department chairs. These discussions will be an opportunity to explore and clarify support for fall curriculum needs and will also help ITS and the Provost office identify more specialized or local needs that need further study.

4. Faculty panel series, Teaching Community of Practice continues, 2-3 pm Wednesdays in July, (registration required)

What does it mean to teach a multimodal course in the midst of a global pandemic? This weekly series of faculty panels, co-sponsored by the Sherrerd Center and the Learning, Research and Technology group, addresses topics that span pedagogical and technological approaches to the remote classroom. Join us for a follow-up discussion on Thursdays 9-10 a.m. to further explore these topics and learn from each other informally. All panels will be recorded and made available, via Smith login, for later viewing. Registration is required through the digital support site, with a maximum of 20 attendees per session.

Next session:

Wednesday, 7/22 from 2-2:50pm (registration link - scroll down the list of workshops to find the Teaching Community of Practice sessions)

Interactivity in Large Courses. Faculty panelist: Kevin Shea

5. July-August workshop and individual consultation program: (Workshop list & signups)

Update for this week: new sessions for the weeks of July 20th and 27th are now available for signup. In addition to existing pedagogy and tools sessions, the program now includes a new workshop type focused on working with campus partners. Look for sessions with Design Thinking (Thursday, July 23rd, with Emily Norton and Laura Lilienkamp), the Museum of Art (Thursday, July 30th, with Charlene Shang Miller) and the Imaging Center (Thursday, August 6th, with Jon Cartledge, Dan Bridgman and Andrew Maurer). We are monitoring enrollments daily to make sure we have enough capacity to meet demand.

General overview: This program (see corresponding slide deck) includes specific pedagogical approaches and supported tools. There are group workshop sessions and 1:1 consultations available. Workshop sessions are taught remotely, require advance registration, and will be recorded to be shared afterwards with members of the Smith community. Sessions that have fewer than three registrants by 5 p.m. the day before the session may be converted to individual consultations. In August, we will add hands-on sessions to practice multimodal teaching from Smith classrooms.

6. Consultations also available for administrative offices

If your office would like help thinking through how to get your work done in a mostly remote/digital mode, we may be able to help. You can request a consultation by selecting Request Help on the digital support site, initiating a help request, then choosing Request a Consultation as the kind of help you would like.

Thanks to those of you who have read this far, and please join me in recognizing the many staff from ITS, CATS, the Libraries, the Museum of Art, Design Thinking, and the Imaging Center who are key partners in our efforts to support a successful fall term. We’ll be back in touch next week with more updates.

Best,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. We have five updates this week. The first four are primarily for faculty who are preparing for fall courses; the last one is for offices and administrative departments.

1. Reminder about the faculty panel series, which begins today at 2 pm with faculty guests Michael Barresi and Angie Hauser (register here)

2. Reminder of our July-August workshop & individual consultation program, which launches this week (workshop list and registration here)

3. Equipment options for faculty: tablets, video loaner kits, FCAP replacements (overview)

4. Planning for academic departmental consultations

5. Consultation service available to offices that need help thinking through or improving remote workflows

Details are in the corresponding numbered sections below.

As always, please submit help questions via the Request Help link on the digital support site: https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support (Smith login required). Requests that go to individual staff members may take longer to get an initial response and may introduce delays in getting you connected to a person who can help with your specific question.

1. Faculty panel series, Teaching Community of Practice, launches today, 2-3 pm Wednesdays in July, (registration required)

What does it mean to teach a multimodal course in the midst of a global pandemic? This weekly series of faculty panels, co-sponsored by the Sherrerd Center and the Learning, Research and Technology group, addresses topics that span pedagogical and technological approaches to the remote classroom. Join us for a follow-up discussion on Thursdays 9-10 a.m. to further explore these topics and learn from each other informally. All panels will be recorded and made available, via Smith login, for later viewing. Registration is required through the digital support site, with a maximum of 20 attendees per session.

Wednesday, 7/8 from 2-2:50pm (registration link - - scroll to Teaching Community of Practice) What does multimodal teaching mean? What does student interaction look like? Faculty panelists: Michael Barresi and Angie Hauser

Wednesday, 7/15 from 2-2:50pm (registration link - scroll to Teaching Community of Practice) Developing Community and Fostering Interactivity in Your Class Faculty panelists: Liz Pryor and Shannon Audley

2. July-August workshop and individual consultation program: This program launched today. Browse Sign up for a workshop at https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/faculty/ (Smith login required)

This program (see corresponding slide deck) includes specific pedagogical approaches and supported tools.

There are group workshop sessions and 1:1 consultations available. Signups are currently available for this week and next week, with additional workshops to be added on a rolling basis.

Workshop sessions are taught remotely, require advance registration, and will be recorded to be shared afterwards with members of the Smith community. Sessions that have fewer than three registrants by 5 p.m. the day before the session may be converted to individual consultations. In August, we will add hands-on sessions to practice multimodal teaching from Smith classrooms.

3. Equipment options for faculty

In the coming days, we will be launching three equipment programs for faculty teaching fall 2020 courses. Sign-up and application links will be posted next week.

• Access to iPads: faculty teaching fall 2020 courses who meet eligibility requirements may choose between a semester loaner or a purchase program that is funded from a combination of CFCD funds and a one-time funding match.

• Video equipment: we will have loaner kits of good quality consumer-market gear to help faculty who want to record video, along with documentation to guide choices in the related instructional design and production process.

• Accelerated FCAP laptop program: Faculty who are due for a replacement of their FCAP-funded device in FY21 or FY22 may request a laptop order now.

Further details are available in this Google Doc. Sign-ups and application forms will be launched next week.

4. Academic department consultations available beginning the week of July 20

We’ve had multiple requests for consultations with academic departments. We will be making consultations available in the coming weeks, in two parts: first, we will offer small group consultations for chairs by division, and then we will add appointment slots for individual departments. All digital support will be organized around a standard set of options that departments can choose from in supporting their instructional programs for the fall term. We will be working with the Provost office on the timing of these consultations (earliest start date is the week of July 20th) as well as the specific questions the departments would like to see addressed.

5. Consultations also available for administrative offices

While we’re on the subject of consultations, keep in mind that we launched a consultation program for administrative offices this past spring. If your office would like help thinking through how to get your work done in a mostly remote/digital mode, we may be able to help. You can request a consultation by selecting Request Help on the digital support site, initiating a help request, then choosing Request a Consultation as the kind of help you would like.

Thanks to those of you who have read this far. We’ll be back in touch next week with more updates.

Best,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. This week’s update has six major topics, all of which assume an audience of faculty who are preparing for fall courses:

1. A “heart of the course” pre-planning guide, to get you thinking about your fall course;

2. Our July-August workshop program, available for signup on or after July 2;

3. A new faculty panel series that will run on Wednesdays beginning in July, with Thursday follow up discussion;

4. An update on the course delivery options document circulated last week;

5. A program coming soon to obtain tablet devices; and

6. Our primary supported tools for the fall.

Details are in the corresponding numbered sections below.

As always, please submit help questions via the Request Help link on the digital support site: https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support (Smith login required). Requests that go to individual staff members may take longer to get an initial response and may introduce delays in getting you connected to a person who can help with your specific question.

1. “Heart of the course” planning guide

This document (Smith login required) was developed to prompt or amplify thinking about the overall learning experience in fall courses. It takes a holistic approach to several key elements you may wish to consider regardless of the specific multimodal approach you choose for your fall courses. This document and the concepts within it will feature prominently in the July-August workshop program.

2. July-August workshop program: Sign up on or after July 2nd by selecting “Sign up for a workshop” at https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/faculty/ (Smith login required)

This program (see corresponding slide deck; Smith login required) launches the week of July 6, and includes workshops focused on holistic course design as well as specific pedagogical approaches and supported tools. On July 2nd, you will be able to sign up for workshops that will be held during the weeks of July 6th and July 13th. We will add more workshops and consultation sessions incrementally throughout the rest of the summer, adjusting and amplifying the program to meet faculty needs. Workshop sessions are taught remotely, require advance registration, and will be recorded to be shared afterwards with members of the Smith community. Sessions that have fewer than three registrants by 5 p.m. the day before the session may be converted to individual consultations. In August, we will add hands-on sessions to practice multimodal teaching from Smith classrooms.

3. Save the date: new faculty panel series, 2-3 pm Wednesdays in July, with Thursday 9-10 am follow on discussion

What does it mean to teach a multimodal course in the midst of a global pandemic? This weekly series of faculty panels, co-sponsored by the Sherrerd Center for Teaching and the Learning, Research and Technology group, will address topics that span pedagogical and technological approaches to the remote classroom. Join us for a follow up discussion on Thursdays 9-10 a.m. to further explore these topics and learn from each other informally. All panels will be recorded and made available, via Smith login, for later viewing. Specific topics will be announced in the coming days.

4. Envisioning multimodal course delivery, take 2

The June 22nd weekly update included this working overview of a few options (Smith login required), which was written in response to faculty requests for some very specific examples of what multimodal teaching might look like in remote and hybrid mode. This document now has a few footnotes to address some specific questions that came in. Please keep in mind that other examples may be possible, too.

5. Program coming soon for faculty access to tablet devices

Many faculty have requested tablet devices to make it easier to write during online class sessions. We are very close to having a program in place to enable loans of tablet devices to faculty who do not already have a tablet device funded by the college. Our default tablet will be an iPad Pro, and we may be able to support exceptions in certain conditions. More on this very soon, once we finalize a few final details around funding. At the latest, we’ll have details in next week’s digital support update.

6. Supported tools

As was the case in the spring, the digital support team will focus on a core set of curated tools, and we will provide training for those tools in our workshop program, beginning the week of July 16. Our toolkit includes a significantly upgraded Moodle, designed for multimodal courses in addition to the more logistical uses for which Moodle was often used in the past. This upgraded Moodle will also have new integrations with Zoom, Slack, and Voicethread. We are also licensing Perusall and CATME. PollEverywhere, Panopto, and other previously adopted tools continue to be available, alongside the many different productivity, media, data analysis, and other software tools already in use for instruction. We will continue to provide remote access to those software packages where our licensing allows us to do so. (Please note that remote access to Adobe software from non-Smith computers may not be possible in the fall, due to decisions made by Adobe. We are looking into this and will keep you posted.)

Thanks to those of you who have read this far. It is certainly a large amount of information, with more to come after the college’s plans for the fall are announced. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll be updating our digital support site to make it easier to find the information you need and to provide FAQs that capture answers to the specific questions you are likely to have on these and related matters. Likewise, we’ll continue to provide iterative updates each week on all the various support matters for the fall.

Best,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the IT Digital Support team. After a short hiatus, this weekly update message is now back in action. Look for these to be released late Monday or early Tuesday in subsequent weeks. This first message of the summer is relatively brief–given that many planning activities are still very much in progress– and is oriented primarily towards initial information that will help faculty who are preparing for fall courses. We know that you are all eager to get as much information as possible, and we will send updates in iterative weekly fashion, as decisions and planning considerations take more concrete form. Please direct any questions prompted by this and subsequent messages to our digital support team, via the Request Help link on the digital support site (Smith login required). If you send your questions to individuals, they will forward them to the digital support help queue for follow up, likely with somewhat of a delay.

• Envisioning multimodal course delivery: Faculty who want to review concrete examples of remote and hybrid course delivery may wish to review this working overview of a few options (Smith login required). This document was produced to inform work underway in the Academic Planning group.

• Preview of next week’s digital support topics: The general workshop and consultation program to support faculty preparations for fall courses will be released next Monday, June 29th in the weekly digital support message. This will include a general description of the workshop program as well as specific schedules for the weeks of July 6th and July 13th. Further workshops will be added iteratively in subsequent weeks. We should have also updates on faculty equipment options as well as the set of tools that will receive priority support for fall courses.

• Support for students: As mentioned in recent faculty forum meetings, we are committed to ensuring that all students with demonstrated financial need have access to the computing devices and (to the fullest degree possible) the connectivity needed for robust and equitable participation in fall courses, regardless of the specific multimodal options chosen for course delivery.

• Digital support topics for July: Throughout the month of July, you can expect updates on further workshops and consultation possibilities, as well as specifics about the classroom configurations available for fall courses that have in-person components. (Training in the use of classroom setups will take place in August.) Later in July, we will begin to broaden our workshop plans to include staff and students.

On behalf of the digital support team (with staff from ITS, CATS, and the library), thanks for reading this far, and we look forward to supporting all of you in your planning for the fall term.

Best,

Samantha Earp

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings again from the Digital Support team, for whom I am sharing these brief updates. As always, please send in a request through https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/ if there’s any way we can help with your remote work or teaching.

Pausing general workshops: We are pausing our general workshops for the time being, since no one is signing up for them. Help continues to be available as needed to anyone who submits a help request through our digital support site. Planning also continues with the School for Social Work on a targeted set of workshops for SSW faculty; information about those workshops will be sent through separate emails from the SSW Dean’s office.

Arranging returns of some equipment loaned to students: Over the next two weeks, the ITS team will begin connecting with those students who received loaner equipment and who do not plan to return to campus, to arrange for the return of the equipment. (This is primarily graduating seniors).

Sign in before you join a Zoom meeting! Many Zoom meetings now require login before you join. This helps make the meeting more secure. Quick tip: sign in to Zoom before joining your first Zoom session of the day. Visit our related help page for more info.

Restricting Zoom session access to members of the Smith community: Thanks to a new option from Zoom, we now have the option to require a Smith login for meeting attendees. This means that people who do not have Smith accounts will not be able to join your Zoom session. See our instructions for more information.

Indicating your pronouns in Zoom: This friendly reminder comes to you from the Affirming Identity through Technology working group, which is co-sponsored by the Office of Equity and Inclusion and Information Technology Services. Including pronouns in your Zoom name is a way to support respectful communication between everyone on a call, just like adding pronouns to nametags and email signatures. Since we can't know what pronoun someone uses by looking at them, sharing our own pronouns and encouraging others to do so ensures that we can use respectful language for each other. To add your pronouns when you're in an individual Zoom session, select the participant list function, select your name, and then select “rename.” To add your pronouns to your name and have it show up in all future meetings, go to your profile in the web interface (by logging into https://smith.zoom.us) and add your pronouns to the end of your last name. For more information on the importance of pronouns, please visit the OEI pronoun page: https://www.smith.edu/about-smith/equity-inclusion/gender-identity/pronouns

Some statistics: Since March 17th, there have been 29,664 Zoom meetings hosted by Smith accounts, with a daily average of 968 Zoom sessions. (The daily average from January through March 16th was 43 meetings.)

By the end of this week, we will have had 137 class sessions supported by Zoom assistants. And finally, we’ve also hosted 60 workshops and more than 90 faculty consultations to date.

On behalf of the digital support team, representing ITS, CATS, and the Library, I wish you all productive work and sufficient rest in this last week of classes.

Best,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings from the IT Digital Support team, and congratulations to those of you completing the first week of remote learning. I write with some Zoom best practices based on the help tickets we received this week, a recap of our support options, and a final note on media coverage of Zoom privacy and security. As always, please send in a request through https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/ if there’s any way we can help with your remote work or teaching.

Workshops: Next week we will continue to offer workshops for staff. We are pausing formal workshops for faculty for one week, since attendance has dropped to almost nothing in the last few days. We will continue to provide individual support this coming week in response to digital support help tickets, and we will return with faculty workshops the week of April 20th, with a particular focus on grading. 

Beta rollout of Voicethread: Voicethread is a cloud-based tool that is already used by several faculty at Smith. It allows you to post images, audio recordings and video recordings, and then have one or more individuals respond to the initial post with text, audio recordings, or video. This has multiple possibilities across the disciplines. This is a beta rollout, which means that we are making it available now for people who want to explore on their own while we are developing more robust support. If you are one of these intrepid explorers, please visit https://smith.voicethread.com, sign in with your Smith login, and check things out. We expect to have more information and support mechanisms available later in April.

Support for SSW summer courses: This week, our digital support team launched a working group with SSW leadership to plan for SSW summer courses. SSW faculty and students will receive more information from the SSW Dean’s office as we make progress on our program of training and support.

Zoom: This is just a friendly reminder that the Zoom company is updating their application regularly to respond to feature and security requests from their customer base, which includes our large and vocal higher education community. Please update your Zoom application when prompted to do so. As Zoom features evolve, we will post updated documentation and training materials to the COVID-19 Digital support site.

On behalf of the digital support team, representing ITS, CATS, and the Library, I wish you a peaceful weekend.

Warmly,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff,

Greetings from the IT Digital Support team, and congratulations to those of you completing the first week of remote learning. I write with some Zoom best practices based on the help tickets we received this week, a recap of our support options, and a final note on media coverage of Zoom privacy and security. As always, please send in a request through https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/ if there’s any way we can help with your remote work or teaching.

Best practices for Zoom: If you are recording your Zoom sessions, please choose cloud recording, as that makes it easier to generate transcripts and post recordings for playback. Make sure that your Zoom meeting is set to require authentication. If you’re teaching, your students should first go to https://smith.zoom.us and log in there, before clicking on the Zoom link for your class. (Especially helpful if you’re using breakout rooms.) If you have questions about Zoom security, check out our Securing Your Zoom Meeting documentation. If you need help with any of this, send in a help request through our COVID19 Digital Support site, and we’ll help you figure this out.

Requesting support for virtual events: The “request help” link on the COVID19 Digital Support site now includes a way for you to inquire about support for events. We’ll sort event requests into two categories: 1) those that need limited to no support, with fewer than 250 attendees; and 2) those that are for larger groups or need technical and logistical support to run effectively. We will have limited capacity to support events in the latter category, and so we will review those requests with the CIRT and the President’s Cabinet for prioritization.

Workshops and training: The week of April 6th, we’ll offer sessions on administering exams, making and sharing recordings, Moodle basics, Zoom basics, Zoom advanced, and a course tuneup session. We’ll also have 1:1 pedagogical consultation slots open. Sessions are posted for faculty and staff for the week of April 6th. Almost all of our workshop decks are posted on the digital support site’s page about Supported Tools, with Instructions, Workshop Materials, and FAQs.

Zoom assistants: Our Zoom assistant program continues for those of you who would like a little extra help in your synchronous classes. As before, we’d like to get your requests two business days in advance, so we have time to match student workers and volunteer staff to your class. Click here to apply.

Consultation for office/department technology needs: We continue to offer consultation for staff in offices and departments that need help adapting their business practices to our remote work mode. This is an option in the help request form linked off the COVID19 digital support site.

Once again, I will close with a few notes about Zoom, which continues to receive a lot of media attention, some of which is alarmist. Given the explosion in its use in the last few weeks, Zoom is under unprecedented scrutiny. This has resulted in complaints about security and privacy, and Zoom is being very responsive to those concerns, including the announcement of a 90 day focused effort to address those matters systematically. (This is a far more agile and responsive posture than we often see from tech companies.) This 90 day period will include more frequent updates to the Zoom software client, so please accept those updates when you are prompted to do so. We in Smith IT will continue to monitor the status of Zoom’s response, supported by higher education and information technology professional organizations.

Smith has had an institutional license of Zoom for the past two years, after a rigorous exploratory review including faculty and staff. It is our belief that Zoom is safe for you to use. There are a few key practices to be aware of, which many of you are already using and which are summarized in the best practices section above. By virtue of our institutional license, we have control over many of the features you may read about in the popular press. For example, Smith has never enabled the Attention Tracking feature that allows a meeting host to know if you are looking at something else during a Zoom session. Zoombombing is a real phenomenon, but it can be addressed with a few simple ways of protecting your session. (See the Securing Your Zoom Meeting instructions, and send in a help request if you want to consult about managing access to a public event.) If you have any further concerns, please let us know by requesting help through our COVID19 Digital support site.

For those of you who have read this far, thank you! We know you are all working very hard, and we are glad to help out however we can.

With best wishes from the extended IT Digital Support team (representing colleagues from ITS, CATS and the Library),

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff:

Greetings from the IT Digital Support team. I write with a few updates, most of which are oriented primarily toward faculty. See below for information about a couple of new support mechanisms, updates on existing support mechanisms, and a preview of support being offered next week. There is also a specific note about a Zoom intellectual property question, as well as a general update on how we’re managing all the questions you’re sending in through the help form on the COVID-19 digital support site https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/.

We are launching a pilot Zoom assistant program, in which ITS student workers and volunteer staff provide technical assistance in courses that are meeting synchronously. Application is required (at this link; Smith login required). We will award support based on capacity; priority goes to larger courses and courses that need special assistance. We will let you know within two business days if your request has been accepted. We need that much time to determine if we have sufficient capacity and to line everything up for approved requests, so if you would like to be considered for having a Zoom assistant in your course early next week, please get your request in today to ensure full consideration. Pro tip: you will need the Zoom link for your course session to complete the application.

Additional capacity in Zoom workshops: We noticed that some workshops were close to filling up, so we have added 5 additional seats in our Zoom workshops (now up to 25 registrants) and have also added an additional Zoom Basics workshop and an additional Zoom Advanced workshop tomorrow, Friday, March 27th. To register, select “Sign up for a workshop or consultation” at https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/faculty/.

Weekend pedagogical consultations: We are adding additional slots for pedagogical consultations for the weekend. Those will be made available for registration by tomorrow (Friday) morning. To register, select “Sign up for a workshop or consultation” at https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/faculty/. Keep in mind that our colleagues in the Sherrerd Center are also offering consultations. To sign up, select the handy “Sherrerd Center Consultations” option on the same page.

Zoom training for TAs and Tutors: We are launching new Zoom training options specifically for those course TA and tutors hired for the rest of the term. These sessions will be held on March 27, March 30, and March 31. Registration –for TAs and tutors only– is available here, and we will also email that group directly this afternoon.

Support next week for faculty, staff, and students: Next week’s workshop slate (published late Friday, March 27th) will continue to include 1:1 pedagogical consultations as well as a new offfering, which are small group discussions that allow faculty to reflect on and refine approaches to remote course instruction. We will also continue to offer training for staff, and we will be offering a new slate of help sessions specifically for students in Spring 2020 courses.

Adding additional help materials: We are working intensively to get additional instructions, recordings, and workshop materials added to the digital support site at https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/. As these are added, we'll post updates on the home page and in the faculty, staff, and student sections.

Processing help and equipment requests: We are increasing training and staff coverage to manage the general questions coming in via the help form on the COVID-19 Digital Support site, so we can answer your questions in a more timely manner. You should start to see prompter response times by Monday if not before. Equipment requests necessarily take a day or two to cycle through the inventory review and approvals; you can continue to expect up to two business days to hear back on those.

Last, but certainly not least, we have fielded questions in many different groups about Zoom recordings and privacy. Let me state for the record that Zoom does NOT own the intellectual property for any recordings made using its features, whether cloud based or locally hosted. Please help us correct the persistent and inaccurate rumor about this. We strongly encourage you to use the cloud recording option for its ease of use in many different features. We will have more information about this and other very specific Zoom questions in the FAQs we’ll be posting to the help site by Friday.

On behalf of the extended IT Digital Support team (representing colleagues from ITS, CATS and the Library, with robust support and connections to offices around the college), we wish you a productive week as you begin remote courses. We are here for you!

Warmly,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff:

I write with a lengthy update around the ongoing IT support for courses and for remote work. Many of the items below refer to the COVID-19 Digital Support site we launched a week and a half ago. We are updating this site regularly with more resources, materials, how-tos and help options. Please bookmark https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/ for ease of access.

Our team is also launching a lightweight consultation process for offices that are struggling to find the right tools to keep work moving in this new mode. Wherever possible, we want to help match you to existing tools that might solve specific problems and that have already been vetted to meet Smith’s requirements for ease of use, data privacy, cybersecurity, reliability and accessibility. More on that in the staff section below.

Please continue to direct your general COVID-19 info requests to covid19info@smith.edu, and your digital support requests through the “Request help or volunteer” form at https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/. This makes sure that your request doesn’t get buried in the email of an individual team member who may be fully dedicated to one or more aspects of our COVID-19 planning and support.

Faculty

Next week’s slate of pedagogical consultations and technical preparation workshops will be posted this evening. Go to the COVID-19 digital support site, click or select the faculty section, then select “Sign Up for a Workshop or Consultation.” Note in particular the workshops offered by two faculty volunteers, Simon Halliday and Jordan Crouser; a workshop on remote access and VPN; and the addition of several “Take the Wheel” workshops, in which faculty who have already completed introductory Zoom training can practice hosting a class with friendly staff volunteers playing the role of students. Check back next week for short workshop descriptions on the main site, so you can browse details before you decide what to sign up for.

We are updating the COVID-19 digital support site to include materials from workshops as well as additional documentation that may be of use to you. Most of these will be added by next Monday, informed by the feedback in this week’s workshops. This will include some recordings as well, which we know many of you are eager to see.

The Sherrerd Center is also offering consultations with faculty peers who are ready to help with this unprecedented and rapid shift to remote instruction. You can sign up for these by going to the COVID-19 digital support site, navigating to the faculty section, and selecting the “Sherrerd Center Consultation” option. To learn more, read this letter from Sherrerd Center Director Sara Pruss.

We are working through your volunteer requests and will be in touch in the coming days about possible ways you can help. If you haven’t yet volunteered but would like to, please complete the “Request Help or Volunteer” link on the COVID-19 digital support site. Next week, our IT academic continuity team will expand our focus to include planning for “Zoom assistants” you can request to join your course, and we will also plan for more general training for students. More on those efforts soon.

Staff

Next week we will continue Zoom training, to be expanded in the coming days to include Google tools. To sign up, go to the COVID-19 digital support site, navigate to the Staff section, and select “Sign Up For a Workshop”. We are adding more resources and learning materials to help you use the tools to stay connected while working remotely. Refer to the new “Resources for Remote Work” link in the Resources section on the home page of the COVID-19 digital support site, which includes this new Tools for Working Remotely guide. If the move to remote work has created a gap in your office business processes or workflow, we might be able to help you identify a Smith tool that already meets Smith requirements for ease of use, data privacy, cybersecurity, reliability, and accessibility. On the COVID-19 digital support site, select “My office/department needs a consultation”, then fill out the request for consultation.

Notes for everyone

If you or someone in your team took desktop computing equipment home from Smith and did not first request permission to do so, please fill out the equipment request form so that we can track equipment location. (No need to do this for Smith-issued laptops). Faculty and managers are responsible for the safekeeping of equipment assigned to their labs and offices.

Equipment distributions continue. For students, we are prioritizing equipment loans for those students who are designated at a high or medium level of demonstrated financial need, as determined by Student Financial Services. If we have equipment left over after we meet the needs of those students, we will then connect with students who have lower demonstrated financial need. Faculty and staff equipment requests are being processed as well. The links to the equipment request forms are available on the home page of the COVID-19 digital support site.

Many thanks to colleagues from ITS, CATS, the Libraries, the Sherrerd Center, the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Student Financial Services, the Office of the Dean of the College, the CIRT, and the many others around campus who are partners in this ongoing work.

Wishing you peace,

Samantha

Dear faculty and staff:

This morning, our Zoom account limited our all-staff meeting to 500 people, rather than the 1000 attendee limit we had planned. We understand the frustration and stress this unfortunate situation caused for the many of you who were unable to join the meeting as a result.

In order to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to hear from - and participate in a Q&A with - PresidentMcCartney and CIRT team members, we will host a second all-employee Zoom meeting with the exact same agenda and the same remarks from the speakers. Information on joining the meeting can be found below.

Please note:

• Please only join this meeting if you were unable to access this morning’s meeting, to save space for colleagues within the 500 attendee limit. (We are working to expand that limit but cannot promise the issue will be resolved by 2 p.m.)

• Video recordings of both sessions will be made available, with transcripts that can be viewed as you play the video. These will be linked off the “Archive of Email and Meeting Materials” link on the Covid-19 Digital Support site at https://sophia.smith.edu/covid19-digital-support/

• Please do not open more than one Zoom session, as it limits others’ opportunities to join the meeting.

You have two ways to join the all-employee meeting by Zoom.

1.  By computer or smart phone - requires the Zoom application

   1. • If you do not have the Zoom application already, go to https://zoom.us/support/download to download it.

      • Go to the link https://smith.zoom.us/j/694629074 or from the Zoom app join the meeting ID 694 629 074

      • You will be able to see and hear the speakers and submit questions through the Q&A function in Zoom

2. By telephone

1. 1. • Call +1 646 518 9805 or +1 646 558 8656. When prompted, input the Webinar ID: 694 629 074.

      • You will be able to hear the speakers.

With gratitude for your support and understanding,

Samantha